


It's Gonna Be a Long-Ass Night: Connections Series Vignette #3

by ixchel55



Series: Connections [3]
Category: Fast and the Furious (2001), Fast and the Furious Series
Genre: M/M, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-12
Updated: 2011-03-12
Packaged: 2017-10-16 21:39:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,249
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/169617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ixchel55/pseuds/ixchel55
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The initial confrontation with Johnny and Lance after the race: an 'expanded' scene.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It's Gonna Be a Long-Ass Night: Connections Series Vignette #3

"Aww, great!" Dom said, his tone equal parts disgust and resignation as he turned back to face forward in the car seat.

"What?"

"It's gonna be a long-ass night, that's what."

Suddenly the Eclipse was surrounded by a wolf-pack of bikers and Brian found himself faced with the business ended of a Tec-9, wielded by a man with almond shaped eyes that had all the animation of a doll. Or a shark. "Follow us!" he commanded.

Brian had thought the night couldn't get any more exciting...he was wrong. He just hoped he wasn't dead wrong.

"What's going on Toretto?"

"Too much to get into right now. Just let me do the talking, OK?"

Brian stared back at the big man in the passenger seat of his...make that what 'used' to be his...car. Toretto stared back impassively, but Brian could feel tension radiating off of him.

A couple of minutes later they were driving through an ornate, Oriental entrance that sported the words 'T & K FOOD' in English on one side and presumably the equivalent in Asian characters on the other. They drove down a side-street within the warehouse and office complex and were soon stopping amidst a sea of ghostly white statues. The place had an eerie quality in the darkness, reminiscent of the statues in old Southern graveyards he'd seen pictures of and Brian felt a small tickle of apprehension run down his spine at the mental comparison.

The two motorcycles flanking and slightly to the front of the Eclipse came to a stop and Brian followed their example. The rest of the bikes held back a little but closed in enough so that the car was surrounded. Brian flashed a wary look at Dom who returned it before they reached for the door handles. By the time they were out, the drivers of the two lead bikes had removed their helmets and were dismounting. A quick glance around showed that the rest of the gang had followed suit.

Movement out of the corner of his eye drew Brian's attention back to the front. He found himself looking down that Tec-9 again. None of the other riders were showing weapons, only this one, and it was pointing straight at him. The wielder was a slim, almost petit, Asian man. From what Brian could see, he was smaller than any of the other men present, even smaller than a couple of the women. He was the one with the dead eyes, and they were fixed unwaveringly on Brian.

"I thought we had an agreement." The man on Dom's side of the car was also Asian, like all the others present, but there the similarity ended. This man was tall, well over six feet, and while far from being heavy, he wasn't lanky, either. He was pacing around the front of the car, an eerie, almost-friendly smile on his face as he admired it. "You stay away, I stay away...everybody stays happy."

"We got lost, Johnny, whaddya want me to tell you?" Dom's voice was easy going, but Brian could hear the tense undertone.

"Who's 'we'?" Johnny asked softly, looking at Dom for the first time.

"Uhmm, my new mechanic." Dom pointed at Brian across the top of the car. "Brian, meet Johnny Tran. That guy in the snake skin pants, that's his cousin Lance."

For a few moments Brian alternated between watching Dom and Tran, trying to get a feel for the situation. Tran continued to move around the car in a strange ballet, his movements graceful and almost lover-like, as if he were courting the Eclipse. But at the mention of the cousin, Brian's eyes swung back to Lance. It didn't seem as if the man had moved. His hand, the one holding the Tec-9, didn't waver, and his eyes never even seemed to blink. He was more than a head shorter than Brian, but this was the man that scared Brian. This was the unknown factor in the equation, the unpredictable one.

Lance radiated an aura of stillness, but in contradiction, there was nothing calm about the man. It almost felt like standing in the eye of a hurricane, waiting for it to come crashing down on him again. And his eyes, Brian couldn't explain it, but even though Lance's eyes were expressionless, there seemed to be something moving just behind them, like a shark swimming in murky waters. You knew it was there, you just didn't know where. You knew he was dangerous, but not whether he was hungry enough to strike.

"So, when you gonna give me a chance at that Honda 2000 of yours?" Dom asked

Johnny completely ignored Dom, instead choosing to direct a soft spoken question at Brian. "This your ride?" One large hand came up to gently stroke the surface of the Eclipse.

"It was," Brian said, "It's his now." He gave a small nod in Dom's direction.

"No it's not." Dom's voice was very matter-of-fact. "I haven't taken delivery." Brian's eyes narrowed slightly in confusion, but they met with an implacable stare.

Johnny tilted his head to one side and then back again, that bemused, facetious smile still on his face. "It's nobody's car." He sighed and walked towards the back of the Eclipse, hand trailing along the surface in a lover's caress. "Somebody put in the wrench time." Johnny stopped and looked over the top of the car at his cousin, his tone still playful. "What do you think, Lance?"

As Johnny had walked toward the back of the car, Lance suddenly came to life, keeping pace with him as though he were drawn along on a string, but his eyes remained locked on Brian's face. At Johnny's question, he moved a couple of steps closer to Brian, staying out of lunging range.

"It's an amazing machine," agreed Lance softly, his eyes never leaving Brian's face. Brian gave a small, carefully internalized shudder. He was pretty sure that Lance and Johnny weren't speaking of the same thing.

"Yes, indeed," Johnny agreed, he was looking straight ahead, the small, enigmatic smile still curving his lips. He reached out and patted Dom companionably on the arm as he walked past. "Let's go."

Lance walked another couple of steps toward Brian before making a smooth U-turn, his head swiveling to keep his eyes on Brian until the last moment.

"I'll see you in the desert next month," Johnny told Dom without looking at him as he remounted his motorcycle. The girl riding behind him moved to take her place behind Johnny, an amused expression on her face. "Be ready to have your ass handed to you."

"Yeah, you're gonna need more than that crotch rocket." Dom's tone was humorous, but he was tugging at his neck as though something were binding his throat. Brian could still feel the nervousness bleeding off of him, but then, being surrounded by the 'enemy' on their own turf wasn't making Brian feel all that secure, either.

Brian wasn't sure if he categorized Tran as an enemy for his own sake or for Dom's. Something important to think about. Later.

"I got something for you." Johnny's promise was quietly smug.

Brian still had his eyes on the back of Lance's head. He knew that there had to be other weapons, other dangerous members in the gang, but none of them, not even Johnny Tran, made Brian's sense of self-preservation sit up and start ringing alarm bells the way that Lance did and it was more than the weapon.

Suddenly the air was filled with the growl and whine of cycle engines, and as quickly as the pack had appeared they were gone. As soon as they were out of sight, Brian turned to Dom over the top of the car.

"What the hell was that all about?"

"Long story, I'll tell you later." Dom pulled his door open and gestured inside the car. "Let's get out of here."

As they were lowering themselves into the car, the distinctive sound of the engines warned them of a return visit. In a moment, Johnny and Lance pulled back up in front of the Eclipse. Without looking at either Dom or Brian, they each unslung a Tec-9 from beneath their leather jackets and opened up on the car. Brian and Dom each darted off to opposite sides as the two Vietnamese unloaded a clip each into the car.

The sounds of the automatics letting loose, the ring of the spent brass as it spilled to the pavement, the shattering of the windows and outraged sound of the punctured car body all made a deafening roar. Then, they were gone again as quickly as they'd come. No words, not even a glance from them.

Brian's shocked gaze met Dom's over the top of the shattered Eclipse. Fire bloomed inside the car and flames escaped through the broken windows. One or more of the rounds must have punctured the...

"NOS!" shouted Dom as he dashed away from the burning wreck. Brian took off in the opposite direction, reflexively raising his arms to protect his head when explosion came.

There was an initial blast and then a more violent one that blew the Eclipse a good six to seven feet straight up off of the ground, dropping it almost immediately back with a crashing thud. The fireball that engulfed the car had an eerie blue corona of flaming NOS around it that flowed momentarily outward onto the ground, almost like water, before being greedily consumed by the flames.

"Brian?" Dom yelled. " **Brian!** " Dom rounded the front of the burning wreck at a run. When he reached Brian he grabbed him by the arm and turned him around, running his hand down Brian's back, searching for damage. "You alright?"

Brian drew in a sharp breath.

"What? What is it? You hit?"

"No," Brian replied slowly, staring at Dom, a wary expression on his face. "No, I'm good." Brian looked away, shocked at how hard he'd had to fight the desire, almost the instinct, to arch his back into the touch of the other man's hand, like a cat being stroked. The path of Dom's hand left a warm trail on his skin, like the remembered touch of his hands clasping Brian's torso when the big man hand pulled him off of Vince earlier that day.

"Come on," Dom said, touching Brian lightly on the arm to correct their course. "Let's get the hell out of here before they decide to make another curtain call."

They walked quickly, retracing their way through the complex.

"When we get away from here, make a call to the cops and report the car as stolen," ordered Dom. "Distance yourself from what happened to it. That'll also take the heat off in case they got the license number earlier." Brian merely grunted in response.

When they were within sight of the main entrance, Brian turned and glanced at Dom once again.

"So what the hell was that all about?"

"It's a long story."

As they approached the huge, Oriental style entrance, their presence disturbed the pigeons roosting on the top, and they made an eerie, fluttering echo off the buildings lining the empty street as they maneuvered suspiciously around.

"Well, we got a twenty mile hike, humor me."

Dom looked at him momentarily for the first time since they'd walked away from the burning carcass of the Eclipse, then looked away.

"A business deal that went sour." He paused, "Plus, I made the mistake of sleeping with his sister."

Brian looked back at Dom to see he was being watched impassively. Then Dom looked away once more, his stride never faltering. But Brian continued to watch the other man carefully.

Dom had just lied to him.

Up until now, to Brian's knowledge, everything that Toretto had said to him was the truth...until now.

Brian glanced speculatively at the man walking beside him. Something wasn't fitting. Some part of the puzzle wasn't locking into place. Brian couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he knew all the pieces were in front of him.

Dom saw Brian's stare. "What?"

Brian waited a beat more. "Why did you tell Tran that the car wasn't yours? And don't give me that bullshit about not accepting delivery yet. What's the real reason?"

"As you might have noticed," Dom said wryly, "there's very little love lost between me and Tran..."

"Because you slept with his sister?" Brian interrupted, allowing a trace of disbelief to shade his voice.

"Don't forget the business deal that went bad," Dom answered, his voice mild but flat.

"Oh yeah, the business deal." The disbelief was rather blatant now.

"That's right. Anyway, I figured if Tran thought the car wasn't mine, there'd be less of a chance of him doing exactly what he did." Dom shrugged philosophically. "Obviously the plan didn't work."

They walked in silence for a few minutes. They could hear the faint wail of sirens coming this way in the distance. The explosion had been reported.

Brian's mind was whirling with the probabilities and the possible outcome of confronting Dom with what he suspected. It could bring him in closer to Toretto, or push him away completely. It all depended on answers and attitudes.

Suddenly it was like the jumbled puzzle pieces got turned the right way.

"Dom," he began carefully, "you remember, earlier in the car, when you said you can find anything on the web? Anything about anybody?"

"Yeah, I remember."

"Well then, why are you bullshitting me now?"

"What the hell are you talking about, Spilner?"

"You didn't sleep with Tran's sister. He doesn't have any sisters. He doesn't have any brothers, either. Other than his mother and father, the only close relative he has is Lance Nguyen. Anyone else is too distantly related and sure as hell didn't grow up with Tran. I did plenty of my own research on all the big players in the racing scene here in LA."

"You're full of shit, Spilner." Dom said flatly. "What are you trying to imply?"

"I'm not implying anything, Dom," Brian said mildly. Inside, his guts were clenching at the size of the gamble he was taking. It was even larger than the earlier risk of losing the Eclipse.

Toretto stopped suddenly, pulling Brian to a halt with the force of his sharp, hard gaze. His chest was rising and falling rapidly with his elevated respirations. The muscles in his jaws were clenching in counterpoint with the big hands that hung at his sides. Brian was bracing himself for impact, the small smile never leaving his face.

The tension of the moment was broken and replaced by the realization that the sirens of the emergency vehicles had increased in number and were closing in fast. Suddenly the intersection they were approaching was filled withred and blue strobing lights. Grabbing Brian by the arm, Dom pulled him into a darkened alleyway where they flattened themselves into the shadows.

Brian turned his head sideways and found Dom looking straight at him. In the dark of the alley, his eyes were practically all pupil, black and glittering with the pinpoint shards of light from the passing vehicles. Their eyes were locked and the edges of reality seemed to blur away in the expectation of the moment. Brian could feel heat bloom in his chest, like the NOS fed fire in the Eclipse. It began moving rapidly outward, greedily trying to suck all of the oxygen from his lungs. Then as quickly as it had happened, the dark alley came back into focus.

The police cars and the fire engine were gone, moving into the distance and Brian could hear the combined harsh breaths of them both filling the dark. Finally, the shadow within the shadows that the other man had become moved away from the wall and coalesced back into Dom. Brian could make out his facial features once more, but he knew that Dom was simply starring into the pool of darkness that Brian was still submerged in.

Suddenly, Dom turned away and began moving down the alley toward the next street over.

"We need to put some more distance between us and the scene before we call for a cab," he threw over his shoulder as he walked.

Brian took a moment to feel a surge of resentment. Dom was striding, strong and calm, away from where Brian still slumped against the side of the building, feeling like a marionette sagging on tangled strings. He took several breaths, willing himself to a state that at least resembled self-composure before he pushed off and followed. It only took a few moments for his longer legs to catch up with Dom.

When Dom finally deemed that a respectable distance had been reached, he pulled out his cell phone and called for a cab. Brian pulled himself onto a low stone wall and watched silently as Dominic Toretto paced the street restlessly. He didn't look at Brian again.

In less than ten minutes, the cab was there and Dom gave him an Echo Park address. The rest of the ride was spent in silence.

 ****

When the Yellow Cab pulled up in front of the house, Dom could see that the post-race party was in full swing.

The ride home had given him time try to get his thoughts and emotions sorted and under control, not that he'd been entirely successful. But the burgeoning sense of panic he'd felt at Brian's too astute, barely there insinuations had melted away on the ride back. He couldn't feel any sense of menace, or even mischief, coming from the other man. On the contrary, Dom could feel the heat of his interest like a living thing trying to burrow into his flesh. And while there was an answering heat that called from deep inside of himself, Dom ruthlessly dampened it. Things were getting too complex in an already complex world. He didn't need this kind of pressure, not right now. He couldn't afford to lose focus. Too much was at stake. Too many people could get hurt. Besides, he didn't hunt in his own backyard. And whether Dom liked or not, Brian had worked his way inside the perimeter of Dom's defenses.

 _'Dude, I almost had you!'_ Christ, if he only knew.

"Take care," the kid called out lazily as he started down the street.

Four years ago, Leon had been an exception, and then only because it had started before the connection had been realized. By then it was too late to put the genie back in the bottle. Besides, it hadn't lasted long anyway. The fire wasn't there for either one of them. But it had been easy, convenient for them both, to have an occasional fuck buddy with no commitments other than friendship. Dom knew that just wasn't the case here. This kid...this Brian Earl Spilner...with his deceptively solid, loose-limbed body, his icy-hot blue eyes, that devastating, straightforward honesty and slow grin...here was fire. Fire hot enough to burn Dom alive if he let it loose. And that wasn't going to happen. Dom couldn't allow it to happen.

Then why was it that Dom found himself standing on his porch, watching Brian walk away, and realized that he couldn't let that happen, either.

"Yo Spilner! You wanna beer?"

"Yeah, sure."

Why did Dom feel like he'd just turned a corner in his life, and there was no going back?

 

end


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